Okay so it might not be painful being a redhead, but it does probably mean your body is more resistant to pain medications than people with other colors of hair.

A growing body of research shows that people with red hair need larger doses of anesthesia and often are resistant to local pain blockers like Novocaine. As a result, redheads tend to be particularly nervous about dental procedures and are twice as likely to avoid going to the dentist as people with other hair colors. Researchers believe redheads are more sensitive to pain because of a mutation in a gene that affects hair color.

That’s right. A simple gene mutation that is responsible for giving you red hair and (probably) freckles is also responsible for your body’s resistance to pain killers. Maybe “resistance” isn’t quite the right word, but redheads are more resistant to pain medication than the rest of us.

The MC1R gene belongs to a family of receptors that include pain receptors in the brain, and as a result, a mutation in the gene appears to influence the body’s sensitivity to pain. Red heads needed, on average, about 20 percent more general anesthesia than people with dark hair or blond coloring. Redheads are also more resistant to the effects of local anesthesia, such as the numbing drugs used by dentists. The study found this gene mutation in 65 of 67 redheads.

As a result, redheads are twice as likely to avoid going to the dentist or the doctor because of the pain that will result from that visit.